How to solo twink a rogue?

[TheBlob]

So I'd like to start a rogue and maybe give him a little hand, especially in regards to weapons. I like to farm/quest things myself and very rarely buy anything (51+ spells are the biggest exception). What are items that would help out a newbie rogue and that are attainable with:

A level 60 Magician;
a level 57 Druid;
or a level 52 Monk?

So far, I see the Burning Rapier quest. What is the easiest way to MQ it? Any other items that are more worth it? The Iksar Berzerker Club is also not bad.

For haste: I can camp FBSS with my Magician.
For regen: Is camping Iksar Ceremonial Chestplate viable with a 57 druid? I feel like it might be difficult with the limited track range.

Any input is welcome [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Cheers!

[kjs86z2]

Without a Fungi I don't see a point.

[sammoHung]

I soloed my rogue 1-60. I had a Fungi tunic, and also had enough to buy a Ragebringer MQ at level 46 - but I was able to do it fairly easily. (Not easy compared to monk, mage, dru though)

a) Master the side-stab or step-through stab.
I used the side-stab, because I could never get the step-through stab working. After the mob swings, there's a tiny delay where they don't move - use that tiny delay to strafe to the side of mob and backstab, OR step-through the mob and backstab.

b) Spine Break poison is OP
Spine break is a low skill poison that can be used all the way while levelling (once you get make poison skill) Spine break is 50% slow and a root. They are expensive to make, but worth it, imo.

c) Stick to outdoor zones and use intimidation
Intimidate is actually pretty reliable. If you side-strafe while chasing a feared mob, you are more likely to hit than if you followed directly behind.

For gear - Get a high damage mainhand and a fast offhand. Gear is a spectrum, and rogues are either the worst, or second worst solo class, depending on who you ask. I think the ability to hide/sneak and the backstab gives a slight advantage over warrior - but either way it will be a slog.

[Snaggles]

You can get a Seb Dirk for port plat. Spend plat on spine break or find a duo buddy.
It’s painful with a fungi so I’d probably do that char after you can land one. Or resort to duoing to 60 with a friend.

[Cecily]

Don't level a rogue on a dead EQ server.

[Jimjam]

It seems to me that much of this project is an exuse to camp items, rather than it strictly being about the rogue?

I'd suggest to find SCHW a much easier camp than FBSS. Perhaps you may find it easier to back and forth between your characters to split the camp, but the parts are there and I think you'd be able to take the boss. I'm sure you can think of the best strategy for you with your own characters.

I find the ceremonial iksar chestplate is good until about 30-40. I've seen plenty of druids do the camp. There are other nice loots from the camp too. Maybe have your rogue parked there in case you have a hangman's noose drop (17% no drop head/waist haste)?

Mobs which cast can be pretty decent for rogues if you have a decent dmg stabber - while they cast it is much easier to position to the rear to get in back stab.

Speaking of backstab, it is based off DMG. I think you want to find a more damaging main hander than the burning rapier if you want to xp on things more serious than greens and the lowest blues. Immediately the Harpoon of the Depths jumps out to me 8/25 (Loio from Bloodgill goblins - green xp for the druid, a bit more tricky for the monk). If you can get in on some platehouse I think you can find the Frozen Shard (13 26) or maybe you may find one of your toons can haul loot from skyshrine for Lath Drinor (and other stuff).

[Vivitron]

Originally Posted by Jimjam [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

It seems to me that much of this project is an exuse to camp items, rather than it strictly being about the rogue?

I'd suggest to find SCHW a much easier camp than FBSS. Perhaps you may find it easier to back and forth between your characters to split the camp, but the parts are there and I think you'd be able to take the boss. I'm sure you can think of the best strategy for you with your own characters.

I find the ceremonial iksar chestplate is good until about 30-40. I've seen plenty of druids do the camp. There are other nice loots from the camp too. Maybe have your rogue parked there in case you have a hangman's noose drop (17% no drop head/waist haste)?

Mobs which cast can be pretty decent for rogues if you have a decent dmg stabber - while they cast it is much easier to position to the rear to get in back stab.

Speaking of backstab, it is based off DMG. I think you want to find a more damaging main hander than the burning rapier if you want to xp on things more serious than greens and the lowest blues. Immediately the Harpoon of the Depths jumps out to me 8/25 (Loio from Bloodgill goblins - green xp for the druid, a bit more tricky for the monk). If you can get in on some platehouse I think you can find the Frozen Shard (13 26) or maybe you may find one of your toons can haul loot from skyshrine for Lath Drinor (and other stuff).

I'll add that there's also a kael factioned quest for the frozen shard that would be trivial on the druid except for the turn in faction. Not sure about the turn in without kael faction, though. The wiki page talks about sneak turn in with an unfactioned character so it might be viable to loot the letter on the monk or rogue and figure out a way to turn in.

[TheBlob]

Originally Posted by Jimjam [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

It seems to me that much of this project is an exuse to camp items, rather than it strictly being about the rogue?

This guy gets it! I am indeed looking for an excuse to farm items. It’s my favorite part of the game 😊

For the SCHW, I believe my best bet would be my druid root rotting? Never went far in the zone, but my magician cannot take more than one mob at a time…

Also, didn’t think of Skyshrine loots! I camped them for some time but they are very rare lol. Might be a camp for me. Vivitron, I didn’t know about the Frozen Shard quest either. I might give it a go! Thanks Snaggles and Keebz for your input on the Forager cycle 😊

To kjs86z2 and WarpathEQ, who say it isn’t worth it (I especially love your detailed answer, WarpathEQ), you might be right… I never leveled a melee very high because I mostly solo and Monk seems to be the most viable option for solo (with Mend and DPS). Perhaps I will do all of this and realize non-fungi rogues cannot significantly solo, and “waste” all this time. I will keep it in mind. As for leveling my monk instead, this might be what I will do, but we recently had difficulty in a raid because we lacked DPS. I figured more people with rogues might have helped, plus I love the idea of being able to Sneak/Hide for corpse recovery, Pick Pocket gems in abandoned dungeons and opening locked doors to help me in my adventures with my RL friends. Maybe the solo leveling is too painful compared to the advantages of a rogue and monk might be a better class for me.

Vexenu and Snaggles, I don’t know why, but I really don’t want to buy any piece of gear. Maybe I want to hoard all my plat to give me the illusion that I might be able to buy Legacy items at some point hahaha

sammoHung, it indeed seems you gave me tips on how to solo play a rogue. Thanks for the tips 😊

Cheers everyone and thanks for the input!

[WarpathEQ]

Originally Posted by TheBlob [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

This guy gets it! I am indeed looking for an excuse to farm items. ItÂ’s my favorite part of the game 😊

For the SCHW, I believe my best bet would be my druid root rotting? Never went far in the zone, but my magician cannot take more than one mob at a timeÂ…

Also, didnÂ’t think of Skyshrine loots! I camped them for some time but they are very rare lol. Might be a camp for me. Vivitron, I didnÂ’t know about the Frozen Shard quest either. I might give it a go! Thanks Snaggles and Keebz for your input on the Forager cycle 😊

To kjs86z2 and WarpathEQ, who say it isn’t worth it (I especially love your detailed answer, WarpathEQ), you might be right… I never leveled a melee very high because I mostly solo and Monk seems to be the most viable option for solo (with Mend and DPS). Perhaps I will do all of this and realize non-fungi rogues cannot significantly solo, and “waste” all this time. I will keep it in mind. As for leveling my monk instead, this might be what I will do, but we recently had difficulty in a raid because we lacked DPS. I figured more people with rogues might have helped, plus I love the idea of being able to Sneak/Hide for corpse recovery, Pick Pocket gems in abandoned dungeons and opening locked doors to help me in my adventures with my RL friends. Maybe the solo leveling is too painful compared to the advantages of a rogue and monk might be a better class for me.

Vexenu and Snaggles, I donÂ’t know why, but I really donÂ’t want to buy any piece of gear. Maybe I want to hoard all my plat to give me the illusion that I might be able to buy Legacy items at some point hahaha

sammoHung, it indeed seems you gave me tips on how to solo play a rogue. Thanks for the tips 😊

Cheers everyone and thanks for the input!

100% not trying to yuck someone's yum just trying to value your time (or project a fraction of how I value my time on to you maybe). As someone who leveled multiple rogues for the same reason (not enough raid DPS), mains a rogue, and is now leveling a monk the advice came from a place of walking this road (with a way bigger investment in twink gear). If I had to do it over I would much rather have a monk with a bunch of BIS gear over my rogue as I could do a lot more with it both inside and outside of raids. You'll find monks at the high end can rival rogue DPS in raid environments and have a lot more utility than the rogue does and what you've described of your typically solo play style, continuing to work on your monk that you already have a huge head start on will reap more rewards than starting fresh on a rogue.

The main reason rogues are prolific for raid DPS is because the threshold to get them to raid level DPS is really low, much lower than being able to solo anything 40+. Its basically just an epic and some resist gear and buffs will pretty much max your stats. So its cheaper and quicker for large guilds to power level entire groups of rogues, where they don't have a gear threshold to obtain solid exp, get them an epic and some cheap gear and send them into battle. From an individual player stand point monk beats rogue in effectively every category.

As far as farming stuff yourself sounds like FBSS would be your go-to haste item as it sounds you are familiar and comfortable with the zone/camp and its superior to SCHW. I would stay away from Iksar berserker club from a rarity stand point as I've spent hundreds of hours farming in KC and just saw my first one ever (PS. you can have it for free if you're on green), unless someone can confirm its way more common/easier to obtain in Kurns.

I would check out Chardok castle entrance on your Druid, you can charm the dogs in there, great way to finish off lvl 60 and there are a handful of good pre-raid loot that are good items for rogues and monks.

[WarpathEQ]

Solo rogue requires a lot of solid gear (to do it in any reasonably efficient manner), especially 40+. I had both a fungi and mrylokars BP (for faster out of combat recovery), epic once equippable, and a variety of other gear and even then it was restricted to only fighting green mobs in open areas with poisons and intimidation RNG on every single fight, and caster like down times between mobs.

I say all that to say that if you are "twinking" with self found gear only your solo rogue aint gonna get too far and will be painful enough to make the overwhelming majority of people quit.

If you really want to do a solo twink rogue proper you're looking at several hundred thousand in gear to get things like flayed barbarian mask, fungi/mrylo BP, epic, horn of hsagra, and full skyshrine armor. Even then you're probably still relying on things like poison, intimidation, and green cons to get all the way to 60.